Terms : Hide Images
| 7252330759 | Aesthetic | Appealing to the senses and qualities of beauty. | 0 | |
| 7252330711 | Allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 1 | |
| 7252330761 | Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. | 2 | |
| 7252330741 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. | 3 | |
| 7252330763 | Anachronism | "Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting. | 4 | |
| 7252330683 | Anapest | 3 syllables foot - stress on the last | 5 | |
| 7252330764 | Analogy | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 6 | |
| 7252330765 | Anecdote | A short story; usually interesting or amusing to make some point. | 7 | |
| 7252330767 | Anthropomorphism | When inanimate objects are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification. | 8 | |
| 7252330768 | Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. | 9 | |
| 7252330769 | Antihero | A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities. Consider Winston in 1984. | 10 | |
| 7252330714 | Antithesis | A statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced | 11 | |
| 7252330745 | Aphorism | A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life. | 12 | |
| 7252330715 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. | 13 | |
| 7252330702 | Assonance | Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity | 14 | |
| 7252330775 | Ballad | A long, narrative poem, usually in meter and rhyme. Typically has a naive folksy quality. | 15 | |
| 7252330746 | Archetype | A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response | 16 | |
| 7252330772 | Archaism | The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. | 17 | |
| 7252330773 | Aside | A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage. | 18 | |
| 7252330861 | Asyndeton | The absence or omission of conjunctions (and, but, yet, etc.) between parts of a sentence. | 19 | |
| 7252330731 | Ballad stanza | A four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, consisting of alternating eight- and six-syllable lines. | 20 | |
| 7252330866 | Caesura | A pause in a line of poetry as evidenced by punctuation (commas, colons, semicolons, etc.). | 21 | |
| 7252330695 | Blank verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter | 22 | |
| 7252330776 | Bombast | Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language. | 23 | |
| 7252330777 | Cacophony | In poetry, using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds. | 24 | |
| 7252330778 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 25 | |
| 7252330870 | Situational irony | When the outcome is the opposite of what is expected; a direct reversal. | 26 | |
| 7252330779 | Catharsis | A release of strong emotions. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play. | 27 | |
| 7252330782 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "school-book" English. Informal diction. | 28 | |
| 7252330747 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. | 29 | |
| 7252330785 | Connotation | Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. | 30 | |
| 7252330722 | Couplet | Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme | 31 | |
| 7252330685 | Dactyl | 3 syllables - stress on the first | 32 | |
| 7252330786 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words words (rather than at their beginnings) | 33 | |
| 7252330784 | Denotation | A word's literal meaning. | 34 | |
| 7252330688 | Dimeter | two foot line | 35 | |
| 7252330788 | Diction | The words an author chooses to use. | 36 | |
| 7252330790 | Dirge | A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy | 37 | |
| 7252330792 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not. | 38 | |
| 7252330793 | Elegy | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful, usually mournful manner. | 39 | |
| 7252330749 | Enjambment | A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense carries over from one line into the next. | 40 | |
| 7252330796 | Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. | 41 | |
| 7252330736 | English Sonnet (Shakespeare) | a poem that is fourteen lines in length. It is divided into three quatrains and a concluding couplet, which has a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f g-g. The units marked off by the rhymes and the development of the thought often correspond. | 42 | |
| 7252330797 | Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. | 43 | |
| 7252330698 | Feminine rhyme | last two syllables rhyme (lawful and awful) more complex | 44 | |
| 7252330798 | Euphony | When sounds blend harmoniously. | 45 | |
| 7252330801 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 46 | |
| 7252330802 | Foot | The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry, formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed. | 47 | |
| 7252330803 | Foreshadowing | An event of statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later. | 48 | |
| 7252330804 | Free verse | poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern | 49 | |
| 7252330693 | Heptameter | seven foot line | 50 | |
| 7252330834 | First person | A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. Uses "I". | 51 | |
| 7252330692 | Hexameter | six foot line | 52 | |
| 7252330805 | Hubris | Excessive pride or arrogance. | 53 | |
| 7252330728 | Heroic couplet | a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style - complete thought | 54 | |
| 7252330681 | Iamb | unstressed stressed pattern | 55 | |
| 7252330806 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. | 56 | |
| 7252330867 | Imagery | Language that strongly appeals to the 5 senses. Usually creates strong mental pictures or the sense that you can so clearly hear/touch/taste/smell whatever is being described. | 57 | |
| 7252330735 | Italian sonnet (Petrarchan) | octave and sestet - corresponds to division of thought - structure reflects meaning - often the octave will present a situation/idea and the sestet an answer. abba, abba, cd,cd,cd/cde,cde/cdc,cdc. | 58 | |
| 7252330808 | In media res | Latin for "in the midst of things," i.e. beginningin the middle of the action. | 59 | |
| 7252330832 | Limited Omniscient point of view | A third person narrator who generally reports only what one character sees (=limited), and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character. | 60 | |
| 7252330740 | Lyric | emotional poem - often regular rhyme scheme | 61 | |
| 7252330811 | Masculine rhyme | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular old rhyme) | 62 | |
| 7252330679 | Meter | A regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry | 63 | |
| 7252330709 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it | 64 | |
| 7252330687 | Monometer | one foot line | 65 | |
| 7252330813 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another. | 66 | |
| 7252330865 | Motif | A repeating idea, image, word, etc., that supports the development of a theme. | 67 | |
| 7252330752 | Narrative poem | a poem that tells a story | 68 | |
| 7252330694 | Octometer | eight foot line | 69 | |
| 7252330727 | Octave | 8 line stanza | 70 | |
| 7252330739 | Ode | A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject. | 71 | |
| 7252330831 | Omniscient point of view | A third person narrator who sees into each character's mind and understands all the action going on. | 72 | |
| 7252330701 | Onomatopoeia | A word that imitates the sound it represents. | 73 | |
| 7252330720 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. | 74 | |
| 7252330733 | Ottava rima | a stanza of eight lines of heroic verse with the rhyme scheme abababcc | 75 | |
| 7252330822 | Parable | A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. | 76 | |
| 7252330823 | Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection reveals some sort of greater truth. | 77 | |
| 7252330826 | Parody | The work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness. | 78 | |
| 7252330827 | Pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature or even more specifically, one about shepherds. | 79 | |
| 7252330857 | Pentameter | A poetic line with five feet. | 80 | |
| 7252330828 | Persona | The speaker created by the author that is not the author himself/herself. Consider "Death of The Ball Turret Gunner". | 81 | |
| 7252330829 | Personification | act of giving human characteristics to animals or objects to create imagery | 82 | |
| 7252330830 | Point of View | The perspective from which the action of a novel is presented. | 83 | |
| 7252330862 | Polysyndeton | When several coordinating conjunctions are used in close succession (ex: He went to the store, and bought some milk, and took it home, and fed the dog, and kissed his mom). | 84 | |
| 7252330836 | Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play | 85 | |
| 7252330686 | Pyrrhic | two unstressed syllables | 86 | |
| 7252330724 | Quatrain | A four line stanza | 87 | |
| 7252330837 | Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 88 | |
| 7252330838 | Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem. | 89 | |
| 7252330732 | Rime royal | A stanza consisting of seven lines in Iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc. | 90 | |
| 7252330758 | Satire | A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of human behavior by portraying it in an extreme way. It doesn't simply abuse (as in invective) or get personal (as in sarcasm). It targets groups or large concepts rather than individuals. | 91 | |
| 7252330864 | Scansion | The act of reading and measuring the stresses and un-stresses to find the rhythm & meter of a poem. | 92 | |
| 7252330726 | Septet | 7 line stanza | 93 | |
| 7252330725 | Sestet | 6 line stanza | 94 | |
| 7252330814 | Simile | A comparison or analogy that typically uses like or as. | 95 | |
| 7252330696 | Slant rhyme | A rhyme based on imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds. Synonymous with " imperfect", "off" or "near" rhyme. Also called half or oblique | 96 | |
| 7252330840 | Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone on stage, meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts. | 97 | |
| 7252330684 | Spondee | two stressed syllables | 98 | |
| 7252330841 | Stanza | A group of lines roughly analogous in function in verse to the paragraphs function in prose. | 99 | |
| 7252330842 | Stock characters | Standard or cliched character types. | 100 | |
| 7252330835 | Stream of Consciousness | Author places the reader inside the main character's head and makes the reader privy to all of the character's thoughts as they scroll through her consciousness. | 101 | |
| 7252330710 | Symbol | A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. | 102 | |
| 7252330708 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword). | 103 | |
| 7252330789 | Syntax | The ordering and structuring of words within a sentence; also consider punctuation. | 104 | |
| 7252330845 | Technique | The methods and tools of the author. | 105 | |
| 7252330729 | Terza rima | A series of three-line stanzas (tercets) with a defined, "interlocking" rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, etc.). Most are written in iambic pentameter but, whatever the meter, the established meter remains the same throughout the poem. Shorter poems written in this style can end in a couplet. | 106 | |
| 7252330858 | Tetrameter | A poetic line with four feet | 107 | |
| 7252330846 | Theme | A main idea of the overall work; a central idea. | 108 | |
| 7252330833 | Third person objective point of view | A thrid person narrator who only reports on what would be visible to a camera. Does not know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks it. | 109 | |
| 7252330848 | Tragic flaw | In a tragedy, this is the weakness of a character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise. | 110 | |
| 7252330859 | Trimeter | A poetic line with three feet | 111 | |
| 7252330699 | Triple rhyme | last three syllables rhyme (quivering and shivering) | 112 | |
| 7252330723 | Triplet | three line stanza | 113 | |
| 7252330682 | Trochee | stressed unstressed pattern | 114 | |
| 7252330713 | Understatement | the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is. | 115 | |
| 7252330849 | Unreliable narrator | When the first person narrator is crazy, a liar, very young, or for some reason not entirely credible. | 116 | |
| 7252330850 | Utopia | An idealized place. Imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity, and peace. | 117 | |
| 7252330810 | Verbal irony | A statement made in which the speaker intentionally says the opposite of what they mean. | 118 | |
| 7252330737 | Villanelle | a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain. | 119 |
